9th April 2017. Swans and Locks

We had one of Robin's delicious cooked breakfasts and set off just after 10am. The day was glorious, sunny and warm. The first manoeuvre - a sharp right turn out of the arm - was expertly executed by the captain.

Harold leaves his winter mooring in the Saltisford Arm.

Scooby was hanging over the side with his nose twitching like mad, or he was standing in the sunniest spot, mostly right in the way; straight back into the swing of being a boat dog.

There are two locks in Warwick itself and we went through these without any problems. They are double and have no bridges but we used our one side only technique and it worked well. We worked our way through Leamington Spa, including going over this aqueduct over the river Avon.

We saw two swans sitting on nests. One sensibly on the offside out of harms way;

And the other on a busy towpath. The male was scooting round the canal trying to guard it. We saw them in the same place last year but have no idea if they successfully raised a family there!

There were lots of towpath walkers and cyclists and a few boats on the move. We did most of the remaining locks on our own. We did 12 locks and 9.5 miles in all. When we did catch up with someone to share locks with, a family on a hire boat, we managed to offend them so much that they wouldn't come up the staircase at Bascote with us. We think it was Robin's tutting as they rammed him for the second time that did it, plus Jo's helpful advice that he should put the tiller the other way to straighten up..... To be fair to us, we had been following them for a while and they had been leaving gates open and paddles up willy nilly.

We moored in a quiet spot between Bascote and Cuttle (what lovely names) feeling tired and a bit over-sunned but having made good progress. Tomorrow it is the ten Stockton locks and then a left turn towards Braunston at Napton Junction.

Its been a lovely day; right back in the swing of things. The dog has his sea legs and Robin has been singing. All is well :)